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Just jumping in on Quicksilver. I have had two Twin Cam engines built by Quicksilver and can confirm they do excellent work. The engines perform as designed to my spec (I have them Dyno after the build while I am there) and donít leak a drop of oil. They arenít cheap, but they are the best. The machine shop alone is worth the drive to see.

Thank you
Funny enough just finished writing a PM to Kitkat regarding how much am I spending and trying to justify it

If I look at the cost it is not so much the amount of $$$ I have spent just in hindsight how they could of been better spent.
I think with the cost of the car the two resprays (That's another story) the mechanical issues the electrical issue and now a possable $8k bill for a engine rebuild all that cash could of bought me a new car!

Don't forget, in addition to the 8 intake valves, you have 8 exhaust valves. If those are visible from the intake, then you have a serious problem

Have you removed the sparkplugs yet to look for damage? If something is banging around the combustion chamber, it can visibly damage the plug. Shining a flashlight down the sparkplug port "could" also reveal a piece of metal on top of the piston, but I'd spend $40 and buy a borescope that you can put down that opening and give it a good once over. Nothing may have broken off, but you could have bent a valve. I have this one that works well and would do the job.

Sorry, being a sarcastic a-hole just comes naturally to me Pull the plugs (keep them in order so you know which plug came from each cylinder) and look for a bent electrode, flecks of metal, chipped/cracked insulator, oil soaked, or discolored compared to the rest. Post photos if anything looks suspect.

Brightonuk: Don't worry about John - he's afflicted living 3 hours behind the civilized world plus its just that time of the month when one of his cars has gone belly up in the garage and oozed some noxious fluid all over his mirror polished white garage floor.

John: Was it the Porker or the Lotus this time?

The Harbor Fright borescope option is a good idea - detected 6 holes in pistons for me so far. However, a fundamental truth exists - if it sounds like a bucket of bolts or a mother-in-law then its f*&%ed and you need carefully consider tear down and rebuild options. Running it while it sounds like this is likely just doing more internal damage - so dont until you can confirm what has gone wrong.

Given you are worried about the wife...errr....cost then I would seriously consider buying a cheap used crate engine from a reliable source, shipping it to you and just swapping that in. It gets you back up running quicker and longer term you can decide to later have the broken engine rebuilt using the quicksilver or other reputable local solution with a lot more power, or even sell off the broken engine as spares. Allows you the phase in costs over time and tiptoe past the better half. Just make sure you are swapping like for like engine. The advantage of this is you may be able to plug and play without having to buy a new ECU or needing to remap - saves a bit a money there. Find out what ECU you have now - as it will inform your search process.

You will also need to determine why the engine went kaput. Typically, it is oil starvation issues caused by GG-forces generated by sticky tires and pushing the limit, over and over, on the track. Cheapest solution is an Accusump set up, then dry-sump, which is double the cost of the Accusump.

not in this case - he drives Porshes...porschi...porkers...those things!

So it was a Ford Racing crate engine to begin with. That helps. Makes a plug and play solution easier.

The link you provided is for a short block - so no sump and no head. Not necessarily bad but it explains why it is cheap. We don't know if you have head damage (the engine...not you) although you will probably be able to reuse the old sump without concern albeit it you may want to upgrade if oil surge was the cause of your issue.

As Mike notes above you will need to determine why it failed so it does not go boom again. Did it happen on road? (bad luck) Do you autocross? (oil starvation) Are you a track day fan? (oil starvation) Did you over-rev it? (oil pump/valve train) Do you let the wife drive it? (clutch)

If you think you like the crate engine approach then will you be pulling the old engine and swapping out or getting a mechanic to do it? You want an old-school mechanic. Race guys have smarts on dealing with out of the ordinary types of installations. The crack head monkeys at dealership service departments cannot take a piss without an OBDII reader.

Edited to add - there is a long block description there but my failing eyesight failed to see it when reading the page! duh! I would see if I could resurrect the existing head before buying a long block. Looks a good solution otherwise.